The Kurama Poster
by Turtle Kid the Woolgatherer
Summary: Well, how would you feel if a witch turned you into a piece of cardboard? Yeah . . . Kurama doesn't like it either. . . . Taking it pretty well, though, considering. . . . OC, OOC, Kuramaxnobody
1. Curses!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, and this chapter is the only one I'm saying it in, because this is also a disclaimer for all the others.

I had this idea before I came onto fanfiction, so it's about time I got around to doing it. And, this fic is strictly for times when I have writers block.

* * *

Kurama sat at his desk with a pencil in his hand, twirling around and around in an attempt to get his thoughts working in much the same way. It was late, and usually by this time his homework was already finished, but his mother had wanted the whole family to go out to eat, thus leaving many things unfinished, one being the homework previously mentioned.

Outside a stillness was in the air, like the calm before a storm. That was impossible, though, because no clouds were massing in the distance, and the smell of rain was not in the air. The sickle moon shone through his drapes, only to be stopped by the lamplight bouncing through the room.

His potted plants rose up slightly, stiffer, somehow, as though waiting for something to happen. He took this in and stiffened before continuing on the math problem.

As he wrote down the answer his pencil broke. Its tip flew off and landed neatly with a flourish and a flip in the wastepaper basket. Kurama blinked, then sighed and reached for his exacto knife to sharpen the pencil.

The window opened in a gush of wind, and two seconds later there was Botan, her pink kimono slightly off center and amethyst eyes blazing. "Kurama," she yelled practically in his ears.

He signaled her frantically to be quiet, before checking if his mother was going to come to see what the racket was. You see, the only reason his mother had wanted to go, and asked him, was she thought he was done with his homework.

The coast seemed to be clear, and his body sagged slightly with relief. "Please, Botan, try to be more quiet," he said, softly.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I wasn't thinking. But this is important."

Kurama frowned. "Something stolen, or someone killed?"

"Killed," she said firmly. "A demon by the name of Lichen is killing some, I mean, _many_ humans. At least, we think so." She hesitated here. "They just disappeared, and we don't know where they are!" She wailed while Kurama tried to be sympathetic and shut her up at the same time.

"It's okay, but wouldn't you know if they were to die? He's not a soul eating demon, is he?"

"It's a her," Botan mumbled, "But that's another problem!" Her voice started rising again as Kurama waved his hands frantically. "We don't have any record of her, not even of her being born," she whispered. "So we can't be sure what is done with them, only that it's best to assume the worst."

"You should go get Yusuke," his calm voice broke through her thoughts of an unpleasant and gruesome death. Meanwhile he was thinking _Do we **ever** have much (if any) information on these people?_

"Oh yeah!" She yelled before summoning her oar (that had somehow disappeared during this brief monologue and the author hadn't deemed it worthy enough to write that little fact down) and flying away before Kurama could do more than give a halfhearted glare that nobody saw.

There was the muffled pitter-patter of feet and then a knock at his door. "Kurama, is everything all right?" his mother called softly through the door.

"Yes, everything is okay," he answered truthfully, for things weren't all right, but they could be worse.

His mother went back to bed, her footsteps retreating into the hallway where she so often walked. Kurama cast a glance at his unfinished homework. True, he only had seven problems left, but as there were considerably less than seventy problems he could expect at least a C.

With that thought in mind he turned off his light and opened the door warily to the hall. His mother's soft breathing could be heard through the door. Kurama walked down the stairs to get his shoes to go to the Makai.

* * *

Hiei sagged against the tree in a rare show of tiredness. It had been a boring day for him, but the lack of activity itself was tiring. His mind was in a more sluggish stage, and drowsy. As no one was around, however, he didn't really care.

He blinked, and Kurama was in the clearing. He had a brief shiver, then it subsided.

"Yusuke and Kuwabara aren't here yet?"

Hiei glared before pointing out the obvious. "No."

"Well, I suppose we could wait," said Kurama while leaning against the same tree. Hiei ignored him but kept his eyes open, albeit halfway.

_**THUMP**_

Hiei and Kurama looked over at the two humans, Kuwabara twitching on the ground.

"Hello Yusuke . . . Kuwabara. . . ."

"Yoh! S'up?" Yusuke stretched his arms above his head. There was a pause, then, "How are you here?"

"What?" Kurama looked startled.

"Well, when Botan came to get me she was all worried because she realized she hadn't told you where to meet us." Hiei turned to stare as Kuwabara got up shakily. "So, how'd you get here?"

". . . I don't know. . . ."

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Lets just go." He glared at Kuwabara who took no notice.

"Where?" Kuwabara looked confused.

Hiei's eyebrows disappeared under his headband in a mocking way. He flickered down in a moment and pulled away a bush. On the other side a cave was carved into a hillside (as beyond the forest was a field) just five feet away.

". . ."

"That was easy," Yusuke smiled, strolling towards the cave with mutterings along the lines of, "Hope she's strong . . . so boring . . . no way this should take less than two minutes. . . ."

Kuwabara walked over to Kurama, thinking him the least likely to laugh at him. "Hey, who are we fighting again?"

Kurama sighed inwardly. "A female demon named Lichen-"

"_I will **NOT** fight a girl!"_ Kurama rubbed his ears.

"Think of it this way: Yukina won't get hurt as long as you kill this demon." He glanced over to find Kuwabara's gaze was starry eyed in wonder.

_I better finish this quick. Maybe, when I get back, I can finish a few more problems. _Kurama nodded to himself. That was a good plan.

They came upon Yusuke looking at the split cave and Hiei leaning against a wall, bored expression on his face. Even so, there was a slight glow behind the white headband.

"The right," he muttered to himself, but Yusuke heard.

"Hurry up!" he yelled back from his position ahead, disappearing around the corner. The other people watched that blank space for a moment before hearing cursing.

Kurama jogged over. Yusuke was looking at another division with a full hearted glare. Kurama took the right one, as Hiei said.

Yusuke followed.

They kept going the correct direction with Hiei, who had flickered over because he didn't want to be associated with the "baka."

When they finally entered a room of sorts it was dark, dank, and all other creepy words starting with the letter 'D'. There was even the feel of death there, and why was apparent immediately.

Bodies littered the floor, bloody and dry. Heads were cut off, and on every one there was a hole in suspiciously the same place as the heart. Men, women, and children's heads were stacked up in three different piles in the far corner, blank eyes staring, some glossed over with pain. The glassy gaze was disconcerting, but not unheard of to any of the detectives.

Kuwabara caught up, gasping for breath. He stopped dead (forgive the pun) once he saw the ruination. There seemed to be nothing he could do, except mutter, "Damn."

"Quite," Kurama agreed. He didn't like Yusuke's reaction, though. The bad boy/gangster looked heart broken almost, and his aura climbed to great heights, like the time when he'd thought Kuwabara was dead.

"I'll kill her," he said with rage.

In a blur Hiei moved to the side to avoid the roof from crashing down on him. Kurama didn't have to, as only sections of the roof came down. The dust settled after rising, and he coughed a little.

The granite like rock was smooth, with no footholds for a fly. He looked to the left at the passage that twisted out of sight. _Oh . . . a maze._

Isn't life wonderful sometimes? They'd just gotten out of one to be stuck in another. How original.

Kurama made the safe choice to go all left after moving all right. It was dizzying, to be sure, but effective . . . until he came to a four way intersection. There hadn't been anything like this in the other maze. Now, with two left choices, he had to stop and ponder. _Which way, which way?_

"The middle," came a murmur from behind. He whirled to face glaring red eyes like a monster children had in nightmares.

"Thank you, Hiei." Hiei 'hn'd, walking past without another word.

* * *

Yusuke blinked at the slab in front of him, anger dwindling away. _That wasn't there before. . . ._

* * *

Kurama sighed lightly, pushing open the great doors before him with Hiei's help. Getting to the end of the maze wasn't hard, but opening the door was.

"I don't think we're welcome here," Kurama panted.

Hiei gave an animalistic growl, his arm covered in a black fire in preparation for the Black Dragon.

The doors creaked open, their redwood surface gleaming duly.

The two demons stared.

* * *

Kuwabara was walking around. There was nothing peculiar in walking, but the place he was walking in was. The slimy walls dripping of perspiration with spiders clinging onto any dry place, snails oozing along without a care.

He walked with an air of being-afraid, Kuwabara's footsteps echoing against the walls of his entrapment. His nose banged against something rather hard and he fell backward onto his butt.

He cursed at the wall, but it was quite used to this behavior and didn't deem it necessary to move, not even when the male punched it, falling backwards again and coming up with quite a few original things to call it.

Oh, how the wall loved its life. Though it grew a little worried when a glowing sword appeared in the boy's hands.

* * *

Hiei and Kurama watched as a lady with green hair was looking at a mirror doing her best imitation of a scary laugh . . . that wasn't very good.

"Bwuahahahahahah-" choke, gag! "Oh, damn!" She seemed to realize she wasn't alone for at that moment she turned around. She looked at them with dull green eyes, blinking for a moment. "Aaaaaaaaah! You're you! And you!" She pointed to each of them in turn, eyes wide.

Hiei and Kurama simultaneously blinked.

"But you will not get me!" Hiei made the guess that she had mental issues. "I will devour your souls! And then, I will put a curse on Yusuke and Kuwabara!" Unstable, too. "And, I will keep your heads on a podium to worship!" _Really_ unstable. "Bwuahahahahahahah-"

Kurama whipped out his rose whip, slicing through the demon that had Koenma so worried. As the body fell, he noticed that Lichen still seemed to be alive, a horrified and angry expression changing to one that wanted revenge.

Then it was gone. The look was dull, and couldn't be more dead. Still, Kurama felt a shiver go through him for no apparent reason.

"Thank you," Hiei said, sounding relieved. But only slightly. In fact, it's better to just say he sounded normal . . . and that he didn't actually say thank you at all, and that Kurama only imagined him saying it because he could read the ever-so-subtle shifts in body language. "Hn."

That made Kurama smile. "Maybe next time," he chuckled.

There was a brief burning sensation in the back of his mind. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, then nothing. A darkness so profound it would have scared him if he had realized what was happening.


	2. Eight Dollars

Disclaimer: I don't own Suncoast.

* * *

Kurama opened his eyes suddenly.

He sat up in the darkness, floating. Kurama twisted so his body was in the (assumed, since it was hard to tell up from down or left from right) upright position. With nothing there to support his body it was a little weird, because he had a feeling that he was still in his body . . . somehow.

It was like a black hole without the swirling vortex. No current pushing him in one direction or the other, like deep space, or a pond. A deep, calm pond.

Since there was no way to know which direction to go in he just floated there, gazing around and trying to figure out where he was and how he could leave in the quickest and least painful way possible. Kurama didn't know it just then, but he was actually moving at incredible speed towards-

_**BAMPH**_

He rubbed his nose that was luckily unbroken, looking at the wall before him. It wasn't very noticeable, just a little lighter in color. He looked in both directions. It seemed endless.

The floating was getting tiring, so he pushed himself along the wall to the right. It turned out to be a good choice because he saw a light. It was a pinprick in the wall, glowing with vaguely yellowish.

He "flew" over slowly to press his face against it. When he did, it seemed like he was in a store of some kind. There were manga books across from him and in a shelf in the middle of the floor. There were movies in the back and, if he concentrated hard enough, he was sure he could see DVDs sharply to his left.

He frowned, backing up only to hit against another wall that hadn't been there before.

_I . . . must be inside something now._ Yes, that seemed plausible enough. That witch had done something. To assume that she had put him inside of something was probable.

Just what was he inside, though?

* * *

Shawna walked down the mall with her friends JoAnn, Lindsay, Robin, and Rachel.

As per usual, JoAnn was looking for more black clothes. Lindsay stopped to look at a joke store and Robin went with her. Rachel looked for some kind (any kind) of book store, and Shawna herself pretended not to know any of them.

"Oh my gosh!" Rachel squealed, pointing. Shawna turned to look. _An anime store with books. That's just like her._ "We have to go there, now!" She grabbed Shawna's arm in a death grip before running off to the store, everyone else following at a safe distance.

Once they were inside the Suncoast Rachel let go of her arm and proceeded to the manga section to flip through them. Shawna sighed, rubbing her arm, and looked around. There were movies in the back, and over there were DVDs.

"Hey, look," JoAnn pointed to the left of the DVDs. Posters. "There's Sesshoumaru."

Shawna stared, then shook her head. "Nah. I got out of anime a long time ago. Besides," she patted her jeans, "no money."

JoAnn raised her left eyebrow, because she was one of those lucky people who had the talent to lift just one at a time and make the rest of the population feel like crap. "You with no money . . . what did you spend it on?"

"Um. . . ." She didn't want to say she'd paid people to do her homework. "Hey look, a bunny!"

JoAnn gave her a look that said she was just going along with this because Shawna looked extremely uncomfortable and glanced behind her. She was a little surprised. "Oh. It really _is_ a bunny."

Rachel stood stock still for a moment, then turned and walked toward the posters, picked one at random, and proceeded to the cashier.

Shawna watched all of this at a safe distance . . . then remembered Rachel hadn't gotten her a Christmas present yet (from . . . two months ago).

Shawna tried to stop her. "Ah-"

"Buying this." Rachel stated (Shawna thinking _She's ignoring me! Anyone, do **something**!_)

The man (conveniently named Bob) rang up the charge. "That'd be . . . eight bucks."

She handed over the money and walked back to Shawna. "Here you go!" she chirped, then walked out of the store to go downstairs to another bookstore, tripping on the little metal thing on the ground on her way out.

Shawna stared at the poster in amazement, with just a hint of furry. "She didn't . . ."

"She did," vouched Robin, looking over her shoulder. "Oh, hey! It's Kurama!"

* * *

Kurama put his head in his hands.

"I was just bought for eight dollars. . . ."

* * *

"Sooooooo . . . Shawna . . . when you gonna put it up?" Lindsay asked, eating her chocolate ice-cream with a contented face.

"Um . . ." she would have said that anime was getting boring for her and that she wanted to burn the piece of cardboard in her hand . . . but then Rachel might hurt her . . . or try (with those little arms it was doubtful that she could hurt anyone). Maybe fake cry. Or real cry. Or just give her this sad look.

Lindsay waited patiently while the three girls in the back-seat decided who JoAnn should go after next.

"Put it . . . on my . . . wall?" There was a brief pause. ". . . Sometime tonight?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling," she assured hurriedly after a brief pause.

* * *

Being in a plastic bag was strange.

For one, it was hard to see out of. For a second, the girl holding him was bouncing her legs up and down a little bit. For the third, he couldn't breath (true, he didn't have to, but that wasn't really the point).

Kurama hummed to himself, wondering where Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei were and what they were doing. _I hope Yusuke and Kuwabara haven't started fighting . . . or Kuwabara and Hiei . . . or Yusuke and Keiko. . . . _

Kurama decided he'd best stop thinking about that.

* * *

Shawna stopped outside the garage, going through the door in the back to get to her house. The poster in the bag banged against her thigh every time she moved.

She avoided her mom and dad (or where her mom and dad would be if they were home, which she doubted but didn't want to take a chance on), running up the wide staircase to get to her room. She sighed, looking around, trying to figure out where the best place to put it would be.

_Hmm . . . behind the door looks pretty good. . . ._

Shawna shrugged. It would do.

She took the poster out of the plastic bag, then took it out of the plastic surrounding it. She walked over to her desk, opening it to take out some tape. She turned back around.

After a few minutes, she placed the last piece of tape there. She stood back, surveying her work.

Lopsided, but okay.

Shawna turned back around to go mess with her computer.

There was a flash of light behind her, but before she could turn around to see what it was something landed on her, making her fall to the floor with an undignified, "Oomph!"

There was a moment's pause, then the heavy thing got off of her back, walking around in front of her so she could see black shoes.

"Do you need help getting up," said an almost familiar masculine-ish voice. Shawna was about to answer, looking up to tell the person that she was going to call the police on him for breaking and entering her house, but the words died on her lips.

Green eyes and long red hair. . . .

It was Kurama.


	3. Imaginary Friends

Kurama watched with no small amount of amusement as the girl before him fainted.

He shrugged to himself, picking her up to carry her to her bed.

Kurama glanced around. It was a very big room, all white walls with various posters and drawings, movies and books on a huge wooden shelf. Her computer and laptop sat side-by-side at her desk that was actually a part of the wall.

Kurama looked more carefully, locating the phone. It was next to the computers on the other side of the room.

He made to walk around the bed. After three steps he stopped, Kurama frowned, glancing back at the sleeping girl. He looked at his chest.

". . ." Not one to normally curse, he simply resigned himself to fate, and went back over to the girl, sitting on the edge of her bed, as far away from her as he could get.

* * *

Shawna woke up slowly. Very slowly, in her opinion. In fact, she probably would have drifted off again if she hadn't heard Nudgy growling.

"Shut up," she growled, before turning over. There was a small thump.

". . ."

Shawna opened her eyes.

Green eyes stared back.

The man in front of her blinked. "I'm sorry, but—"

"**OMIGOD**!" Shawna scrambled back. "_Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my room_?" Without waiting for an answer she jumped off the bed to run towards her phone.

A throbbing lanced through her chest suddenly and she couldn't breath, though she did manage to gasp.

When she could feel something other than pain she realized she'd fallen down. She blinked, sat up, and looked towards the strange man who looked . . . well, gay was a pretty good term for it.

He blinked his brilliant eyes again and removed his hand from his own chest. "Please, don't move more than one meter away so suddenly. It hurts quite a bit."

Ah, and the Understatement-Of-The-Year Award goes to. . . .

"Who're you?" She'd have dearly liked to throw something at him and make him leave, but it appeared that they couldn't move away from each other. She didn't think it was a hypnosis thing, as she was pretty sure that that pain hadn't been in her head. Might as well act semi-pleasant to the stranger. But if he made one move towards her she was in a pretty good position to kick him.

"My name is Kurama," as if to help her, he pointed towards the poster.

Shawna glanced that way, and blinked. Only the face of Youko, smirking, was there. Kurama, posing with his Rosewhip in hand and his . . . pink . . . school uniform on was missing.

Or, well, not missing exactly. Just not on the poster.

Shawna blinked at a growl and looked over at Nudgy. His ears were back and his teeth were showing, but he seemed unwilling to come into the room.

"Nudgy," she called softly, "it's alright. This mean little demon-man won't hurt you." She hoped not, at least. But if he really was Kurama (and she was starting to believe him, dammit) he seemed nice enough on the show, so she and her family should be safe.

Nudgy didn't move.

"Ah," Shawna whipped around to glare at Kurama. He didn't even flinch. "He might be afraid of me."

Her eyebrows rose of their own accord. "Afraid of _you_? Why?"

Kurama folded his feet under him comfortably. "Well, I _am_ a demon."

Shawna paused to consider this. It seemed acceptable.

And then it hit her just how weird this was. She was sitting on her floor, talking to a demon who was from a TV show (and manga, but she didn't really read that), who she couldn't move away form because it hurt, and also whom her dog was growling at.

All she could think of in response to that was _My life sucks._

It didn't make any sense! Why would someone (who wasn't even real, mind you) be sitting on her floor? Also, why wasn't she more surprised?

That second question would have to wait.

"Why are you here?" Yes, that was a good place to start. "Wait, aren't you Japanese? How do you know English?" Well, that last one was just a tag-on that she'd just realized.

Kurama looked almost amused. "There was a psychotic female demon that we didn't know that much about. . . ." He drifted off and stared off into the distance, frowning. "She sent me here, I suppose." He shrugged. "Probably one of the last witches from the last war. And yes, I'm Japanese." Here he definitely looked amused. "I'm also over one-thousand years old. I was bored and visited England sometime during the dark ages. School helped me refine that."

Shawna blinked. "I've never seen that. . . ."

Kurama frowned. "Seen what?"

It was Shawna's turn to shrug. She ignored Nudgy's growls as best she could. "You're on a TV show. You're not real. In fact," here, she was almost happy, "you're probably a figment of my imagination brought on by stress. Yes, that's it. And Nudgy's growling because something is wrong with me. Animals have a sixth sense about this sort of thing. I've read about it."

Kurama stared at the girl in front of him in astonishment. "A . . . TV show?"

Shawna started to nod, stopped, and frowned. "Wait, I shouldn't talk to you. You're not real." She stood abruptly and Kurama jumped up so that the pain wouldn't start. She turned away and proceeded to ignore him. "C'mon Nudgy," she called. "Time for your lunch."

She started walking towards her dog and he bristled at the demon behind her. Kurama winced and decided to keep Shawna between himself and her pet.

As they passed through the door, however, he felt something weird happen. And it made Nudgy stop growling. Shawna glanced over to where Kurama had been last, and seemed disappointed when he was still there.

Kurama checked just to make sure. His feet were a few centimeters from the ground, and when he tried to touch back down his feet went through the floor. He looked back at the door.

He remembered when he'd been a ghost last. It had been when he'd died, just before he found a baby who didn't yet have enough life to have its own personality. This was definitely weirder, though, because he wasn't dead.

Or was he? Maybe this was Hell, although he'd never thought that Koenma was quite this cruel.

Other animals couldn't see ghosts like foxes, tanuki, and some breeds of cats could. But nonetheless, Nudgy was an animal and could sense that Kurama was still there because he kept baring his teeth over Shawna's shoulders.

As Shawna ignored him as best she could while Nudgy did the dog equivalent of a glare, Kurama sighed.

_This is going to be a long day._

* * *

AN: Sorry for the long wait. But I finished my first long story, and that helped me get into the act for this one.


	4. The Sixth Sense Kinda

Disclaimer: Don't own The Sixth Sense. Never have, though I've rented it from my aunt before.

* * *

"I'm real," Kurama practically sighed as Shawna watched the television in front of her with the subtitles on and two pillows over her ears.

"I'm not listening," the girl replied in a sing-song voice as Nudgy sat beside her on the floor, watching his every move without actually being able to see him, his nose twitching often. But at least he had stopped growling after the first two hours.

Kurama sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot today, and couldn't help but notice that his throat was getting a little sore. "If you're not listening, why'd you tell me that you aren't?"

Shawna didn't respond. He hadn't actually expected her to.

He looked around at the room, with the big-screen TV and the high ceiling that had no purpose. The couch big enough for about twenty people, yet looking like it was never used and only holding one at the moment. The room that was filled with white carpets, walls, drapes, and tables with expensive looking . . . things on them.

"What's that?" he asked curiously. He was pretty sure he'd had something like that at one time or another, but he'd never actually looked it up, being too busy with the more interesting artifacts of his "findings."

"An urn," Shawna answered in a bored voice, before whipping around to glare at him. "Stop _doing_ that!"

"Doing what?" No, the innocence in his voice was not just an act. He really was confused.

"Making me _talk_ to you like—like . . ." she looked up and searched for a word, then snapped her eyes back, "like you're _real_!" Her voice was rising, and the pillows were forgotten on the couch by now. She was starting to get panicky, and that was never a good sign. Even Nudgy was starting to edge away.

"But I am real," he said calmly, like this was an everyday conversation. Looking at his luck with this female so far, it probably would be soon.

"No, you're not! Look at you! You're even floating! Nothing real and substantial like a human or-or even _demon_ could float!"

"What about Jin?" He hoped she knew about Jin. If what she said about being a TV show was true, Jin should have been on there.

He didn't even know if he really believed her about the whole TV thing, but she really did seem like she knew him, or at least _about_ him, so it seemed . . . maybe not realistic, but he was starting to think like Sherlock Holmes. The fact that people could turn on the television and look into his private moments was a little scary, actually.

"He's different," Shawna said stubbornly. "He's a wind master, and you're a fox spirit!"

He looked at her from a meter away, where he'd floated in the hopes that whatever she was sure to throw at him would go through with enough force to hit the wall, bounce back, and hit her in the head to knock her out so she would stop melting his brain with her insane babble. He'd learned the hard way that she could get violent easily when she was confused. Sort of like an animal. "Has it ever occurred to you that I might be a ghost?" He hoped, vaguely, that she wouldn't throw her shoes at him _again_. A little creativity would go a long way.

The girl paused, flicking her hair behind her shoulder automatically as she tried to think. "Are you saying I have a sixth sense?" she finally asked.

Kurama said, "It's possible."

Shawna sent him an appraising look. "But then . . . shouldn't I have seen more ghosts than just you?"

"Maybe you have."

She closed her eyes and muttered to herself, "Right. Stop watching The Sixth Sense." Her eyes opened again. "But, still, Kuwabara saw ghosts that freaked him out, and his sister . . . well, she's a block of ice. In a good way."

Kurama wished to point out that Shizuru wasn't a block of ice any more than Hiei was (and to prove it, if you called him that you might have a very unfortunate second-degree burn all along your body), but realized around this point that she was talking to herself. Again. And that Nudgy had left the room.

"All right!" Kurama whirled back around to look at her. She got up and brushed her jeans. "Maybe you are real. But you'll have to prove it to me first." Kurama opened his mouth—"Not now, of course, but if you really _are_ real then it'll come out sooner or later." She stalked up the stairs, running her hands along the wall and ignoring the banister. Kurama couldn't help but appreciate the fact that he didn't have to walk up stairs anymore.

Shawna entered her room with a stomp, as though this was the only way she allowed herself a tantrum besides that whole shoe throwing episode. (You're probably real curious about that now, and lets just say that Kurama wouldn't ask for a soda again anytime soon.) Kurama followed her, and he made a BAM noise, too.

Shawna turned to him, annoyed. "What?" Then she stared.

Kurama seemed amused. Actually, Kurama _was_ amused. "I'm substantial again."

Shawna rubbed her eyes and blinked hard. He didn't seem like something her sick, little mind had cooked up, anymore. She took a step towards him and prodded him in the chest. Her hand didn't faze through like her shoe had earlier. All she could think to say to that was, "You really _are_ a guy."

Kurama was slightly offended by that.

"So, like, are you just substantial in my room?"

"That's what it seems like," Kurama agreed with his eyes closed, trying to fend off a migraine.

"Huh," Shawna whispered, giving him a quick once-over. Then—"HIYAH!" She swiped her hand at him, aiming for his head.

Kurama's body reacted before he had time to think, and he found himself bent backwards in an impossible-looking position. Shawna proceeded to fall onto her knees.

"OUCH! I probably have rug burn again, thanks to you."

He didn't bother to offer to help heal her with his various plants, mostly because he didn't have that much in his current arsenal and he didn't want to waste such valuable stock when he couldn't feel many plants in the general vicinity, and also because she was just a little annoying. The more human aspects of his personality were berating him, but he ignored them with commendable ease.

"What was that for," he asked, semi-calmly. He didn't bother to add that he'd nearly taken her head off with his Rose-whip when she'd surprised him. No need for her to freak out. Again.

"It was going to be for scaring me so much," she mumbled softly, picking herself up with a wince.

It was, indeed, a long day.


	5. Questions

Shawna took a shower that night, and Kurama was made to stand outside the bathroom, hovering sixteen-plus feet off the ground. There was one tugging incident, when Shawna slipped and fell, but he wasn't actually pulled into the bathroom, so Shawna didn't try to do anything to him.

Then she demanded he sleep on the floor.

"I don't want you sleeping next to me, and I definitely don't want my parents to see you on the off chance they're home tonight."

"But what if you roll over?" he politely demanded. He was good at that sort of thing.

"What if _you_ roll over?" she shot back.

"I won't."

She bristled a bit before straightening herself up and saying haughtily, "That doesn't matter. What matters is appearances. I don't want to be screamed at right now. The pain'll probably wake us up, and then we can fix it."

"What if you get panicked and don't remember to move closer to the edge, or you get turned around and pull the other way?"

"Oh, shut UP! Do you always have to analyze _everything_?"

"Yes."

In the end, Kurama won, hands down. Both shoes ended up far away from Shawna that night, and she was too lazy to go pick them up. Without her moving, Kurama couldn't placate his need to put them away, and so was slightly irritable.

Looking back, that was probably what she was aiming for. A twitchy demon is always fun to watch. Until they kill you.

* * *

"So. . . ." Shawna's eyes trailed over to the right. "Why do you have such a severe mother complex?"

If he'd been eating, Kurama might have choked.

"What?" he asked, looking mildly shocked.

Shawna turned back to him. She was tired, but couldn't fall asleep. Possibly because there was a male humanoid in bed with her. "You always do things for your mother. Like that time when that guy said he'd kill your mother if you didn't let him beat the crap out of you. And you _actually_ let him beat the crap out of you!" Shawna twisted to stare at him full in the face. "Are you _sure_ that's the right kind of love? Maybe . . . Oedipus complex, instead?"

Kurama twitched. He'd had things like that insinuated before, but at the time he'd just killed them. He got the idea that if he tried that here, to her, something bad would happen. So he took a deep, calming breath.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

Make that two calming breaths.

"Did you see the beginning of the TV show?"

Shawna paused and gave him an odd look. ". . . Oh! Did I see the first episodes of YuYu Hakusho?"

"Ah, sure." So it was mostly about Yusuke? Well, okay. His ego deflated a bit, but otherwise he didn't really mind. Less chance of people learning all about his private life.

"No, I skipped them, but if you're talking about that episode where your mother's dying and you're explaining about the mirror then that happens a little bit after the first five episodes." She sat up and crossed her legs. "Not much afterwards, but afterwards."

"And how long is this series?"

"I dunno."

"Oh. . . ."

". . . So, about that mother thing?"

Kurama sighed. "Wasn't that episode enough for you?"

"I want the dirty details."

"There are no dirty details! And I'd prefer it if you didn't insinuate that I slept with my mother."

"But—"

"There is more than one type of love."

"I know _that_." Shawna's voice was scornful, in a way that stated she wasn't quite sure if she really knew or not. She pulled the covers over her head again and laid down. Kurama made due with his thin sheet on top of the covers.

There was silence for a while, and Kurama actually started to fall asleep despite the less than comfortable conditions. He'd been put in worse situations than his current one far too many times, anyways. It was always fun to hide a stomach wound from his mother.

". . . Do you like the color pink?"

Kurama sat up, blinking. ". . . No—" he covered his mouth to yawn. "Not particularly."

"Oh." Kurama lay back down and snuggled up to his pillow. "Then why do you wear a pink school uniform?"

"It's mandatory," he glared into Shawna's spare pillow.

"Really? Are the Japanese that sadistic? I'd always heard they were pretty nice, for the most part." Kurama arched up to stare at the lump on the bed. Shawna's hands appeared over the edge to pull down the top part of the covers. She blinked at him. "Do boys really like wearing pink all that much, then? _Seriously_? How many gay people are _in_ Japan, anyways?"

Kurama rubbed his ears, as though not believing what he was hearing. He decided to clarify on the color issue. "Pink is not a favorite of my colors, but it is okay and not nearly as girlish as one would think."

"Are you trying to make me trust in that 'real men wear pink' shit?"

". . ." This gave Kurama some pause. "No. But you humans do have a tendency to label things for no particular reason. Why do you consider pink a girls color?"

"Because it's girly?"

Kurama rubbed his head. "No. It's because that's what you were taught. You were taught to be a girl based on your gender, as you were taught that pink was girly."

"I have to disagree on one point. I was born a girl."

"No, you were born a female."

"What?"

Kurama looked at the Shawna. "You were born with the right sexual organs that could eventually mature to bear children. Being a female is physical. Being a girl or a boy, on the other hand, is all how you are based mentally. You can see examples of that in those people who aren't satisfied with their sexual category."

Shawna stared at him, openmouthed. Then she flushed an unhealthy red and pulled the covers back over her head.

"What now?"

"I can't listen to a boy say those things to me when I'm not allowed to run away from them," came the mumbled reply.

Kurama's stare blanked into a look that had put many a teacher into the mental hospital. It was a stare perfected throughout the ages by many, many children. He hadn't had to use that stare for over a hundred years. "What?" She didn't think he was hitting on her, did she? Because if she did, he didn't think that stringing her up in a tree and leaving her for hours like the other fangirls would work, especially when he'd have to wait _with _her.

"That whole, um . . . 'sexual organs' part." She put out her hands in time for him to see her do the quote marks before bringing them back under the covers. Kurama waited, but when it seemed as though that was it he tried going back to sleep.

". . . So does that mean that you and Hiei are together?"

Kurama jolted up to glare at the newly uncovered girl. Before he could make a fool of himself he closed his eyes and counted to ten. In Arabic. Backwards. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Well, what you just said, and the fact that he seems closer to you than anyone else. . . ." She trailed off as she saw his face. "What?" she scowled.

"What was the last episode you saw?"

"Um, I think I stopped shortly after the Dark Tournament. Why?"

Kurama crossed his legs to get into a more comfortable position. "That's strange."

Shawna glare and rolled her eyes. "Why?"

"For me, the Dark Tournament happened not too long ago."

Shawna looked at him. "What's so strange about that?"

Kurama shook his head. "Maybe I'm reading into things too much."

"Right. So, about Hiei. . . ?"

"Even if I did want him, he doesn't trust me."

"Sure he does."

"No, he doesn't. I betrayed him the second time we ever interacted. He respects me, as I do him. And that is all."

"Oh, come off it. There are so many fanfics of you guys together it's not even funny. There has to be _some_ basis for it! Didn't you ever, like, kiss or hold hands or something?"

"Ah, um . . . no. And what do you mean by 'fanfics?'"

"Oh, forget I said that," she blushed.

"Well . . . if I understand what you're saying—"—and if he did, he really had to murder someone soon—"—maybe they thought it was fate since our mountains are near to each other." Seeing Shawna staring at him, he clarified, "Mt. Hiei and Mt. Kurama."

". . . I guess that's possible. . . ." She still didn't look like she believed him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He sat back and made himself comfortable for the rest of the night.

". . ."

". . ."

". . . I have another question."

Kurama ignored her the rest of the night until she eventually fell asleep. It went against his nature since he didn't trust her, but he finally forced himself into a half awake state to recharge a little.

* * *

AN: Before you go and flame me, yes, I know that science doesn't know enough about that whole sex/gender topic to be really conclusive (brain: COMPLEX). Give me a break; it's fanfiction. For _fun_.


	6. An Early Morning

"Wake up."

"Nyuh. . . . Fshhh. . . ."

". . . That doesn't mean fall back asleep," Kurama informed her.

". . ."

". . ." He sighed. He reached out a hand and, hesitantly, placed it on her shoulder. Nudgy growled from the floor, but Kurama ignored him. He shook Shawna's shoulder. She moaned and rolled away, causing Kurama to crawl after her. He frowned and shook slightly harder than necessary from a kneeling position. "Wake up," he said insistently.

Shawna groaned again and blearily opened her eyes. "_YAARGH_!" She took her pillow from behind her and tried to hit him with it.

Kurama, who'd frozen at the scream bent backwards to rest his weight on his hands to avoid the pillow. When she brought her hand back around to hit him again he caught her hand. "_Stop_!"

"You-you—" She paused, and considered him. "Oh. You."

"Yes. Me."

There was a knock on the door. A voce called out, "Honey?"

"Shit," whispered Shawna, jumping out of bed. She stumbled to the door on half-asleep legs, and Kurama followed much more gracefully and with a great deal less noise, although he did glare when Nudgy edged closer to "protect" one of his pack. Nudgy whined, but backed down. "Yes?" Shawna called across the barrier.

". . . You alright?"

"Yeah, mom. I'm fine." She glared at Kurama. He smiled back. She snorted and turned away, making Kurama breath out sharply in annoyance. "Just a nightmare."

There was a pause. ". . . Do you want to talk about it?" Kurama softened upon hearing the hesitant but worried tone.

"No," Shawna said in exasperation. Kurama frowned at her. She wrinkled her nose at Kurama's expression. "What?" she hissed quietly.

"Alright. . . ." The mother's footsteps shuffled off down the hallway.

"That was rude."

"Maybe a little." Shawna stalked over to her bed, considerably more awake than ten seconds prior. "But she deserves it." She fell into the bed, pulling the covers up over her head and snuggling her pillow. "Did you know that she's having an affair?"

"What?"

"Yeah. She doesn't even bother to keep it a secret. And my dad has tons of affairs, and he doesn't keep any of them secret either." Her talking mumbled off, and only slow, deep breathing broke the silence. Kurama yanked off the covers. Shawna yelped out a, "What'd you do that for?"

"Wake up."

"I'm already up."

"_Get_ up." And Kurama stared at her in such a way that no witty argument that she could possibly use sprang to mind.

"Okay, okay!" She gave him what she thought was a shrewd look. "What's gotten into you?"

"It's already seven."

"Seven?"

He paused. Gave her a strange look. "Yes."

"As in, seven in the morning?"

He looked pointedly out the window. "Yes."

Shawna gave Kurama a very anti-droll stare. "I. Hate. You." She lunged for the covers, but Kurama twisted them and himself away in a move that looked impossible. She stopped, drooping halfway off the bed in what you can be sure was a very attractive manner, and looked up and back at him with wide eyes. ". . . Wow."

"What?"

"Would being with you be like having sex with a contortionist?"

Kurama answered her question with dignified silence.

* * *

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing._

_Click._

". . . Hello?"

"Hey, JoAnn?"

". . . Who is this?"

"Oh, it's Shawna."

". . . Shawna. . . . Why are you calling?"

"I wouldn't tell her if I were you," Kurama warned.

Shawna covered the mouthpiece to hiss, "Shut up," before putting the phone back to her ear. "Oh, well, you know, just normal reasons. Hey, remember that—?"

"No, I mean, why are you calling _now_?"

Shawna twisted her eyebrows together and tried to remember if JoAnn had any plans besides sleeping at this hour of the day on a Sunday morning. "Why wouldn't I be calling now?"

"Shawna._ It's_ _**seven forty**_ _in the __**morning**_."

". . . Oh." She should have thought of that. But the only thing that answered was the dial tone.

"You should know that I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, I know." Shawna placed the phone in the cradle on the wall, lounging back against her chain to reach and scratch Nudgy's chin. He still wouldn't get very close to Kurama. "I always thought that you were the smartest and best looking of them all."

Kurama raised an eyebrow. She scowled at him. Nudgy whimpered. He wanted to protect Shawna, but that man was so scary. . . . "What happened? I thought not being able to leave me after someone says something like that makes you embarrassed."

"This whole fiasco has taken on a dream-like quality. I thought maybe talking to JoAnn about it might scare me enough to 'wake-up,' but that didn't quite pan out. You see, I'm passed the freak-out stage and to the denial stage, but I don't think that's gonna last very long."

"Doesn't the denial stage come first?"

". . . Maybe." She looked away to think about it, mortified, and took another bite of cinnamon toast. "Psychology isn't a strong point with me."

"What is?"

"English." She turned back to look at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"We might be around each other for a while," he pointed out. "It would be best to get to know one another."

"I . . . guess that makes sense." She considering him. "What's your favorite color?"

"I don't have one." Shawna looked to be about to say something. "But if I had to choose one color to see for all eternity. . . . White," he responded with a smile.

"_White_?"

"What's wrong with my choice in color?"

"That's the _absence_ of color!"

"Then why is there white paint?"

"Because some canvases aren't really white!" When she saw him opening his mouth again she held up a hand. "Wait, wait. I _know_ you're good at arguing your point. Okay. I choose to give up and keep my dignity. But really, why white?"

"It goes with anything."

Shawna gave a thoughtful blink. ". . . Huh. Never thought of it like that."

"Of course, blood stains never quite go away."

"Ah. " A commiserating expression seemed in order. "That must suck."

Kurama blinked. "Pardon?"

Shawna raised her eyebrows. "Suck? A synonym for . . ." she thought about it, ". . . 'be terrible?'"

"I am not caught up with today's American slang," Kurama informed her.

"Well, whatever. You hungry?"

"No. And I couldn't eat right now if I was."

Shawna adopted a shamed expression. "Oh." She grinned nervously. "Sorry, I keep forgetting. You look fairly solid until you move." She took another bite of toast, finishing it off. She stood up and wiped her hands on her shorts, then wiped her shorts. "My favorite color's purple."

Kurama didn't quite know what to say to that. He settled for, "That's nice."

Shawna narrowed her eyes. "Don't you want to know why?"

"It's the color of the rock in that bracelet."

Shawna looked down at her amethyst bracelet. She looked back up. "Shut up."

It was the start of a beautiful friendship. Really.


	7. Monday

Shawna smoothed down her shirt nervously, locking and unlocking the front door as she pondered what to do.

"Aren't we going to school yet?" Kurama hovered behind her, frowning up at the sky. From what Shawna said, it was September, and they were in Arizona. Which meant it was still hot, but that the sun came out a bit later than it did in June.

It was light at 5:50, and now, being 6:30, he was wondering when school started. He couldn't feel the heat, but figured it was probably not too comfortable, especially with the black jacket Shawna was wearing.

"Soon." She paused after she locked the door for the thirty-second time, then unlocked it again and went inside. "Actually, I think I'll skip today."

"What?"

"I. Need. A day. Off." She went inside and shut the door after her. Kurama floated through the white wood, frowning as Shawna headed towards the stairs.

"You had a whole weekend off."

"Oh goody. Two days of getting used to an anime character following me around my house. _Excuuse __**me**_ if that wasn't exactly relaxing!"

"You seemed fine with it yesterday."

"Well _maybe_ I changed my mind!"

"You seem angry. Why now?"

"Oh, don't go all therapist on me. It's annoying."

"Fine. Why are you being such a . . . bitch?"

"Hey!"

"Is that un-therapist enough for you?"

"I'm not being a bitch!"

"Then go to school."

"But what will people say when they _see you_?"

"They might not see me at all. When I'm out of your room, Nuddy—"

"Nuddy?"

". . . Your dog."

"_Nudgy_?"

Ignoring her tone, he continued. "Yes, him. He doesn't seem to be able to see me, merely sense me. And although humans may be animals, not a lot are very in tune with their sixth sense, or at least not enough to know a ghost when they sense one."

"But what if they _can_ see you?"

"He doesn't. His eyes don't focus on me, so I doubt they will be able to tell I'm there."

Shawna hesitated. "Fine!"

"Fine."

Half-an-hour later, Shawna was standing in front of her math classroom cursing all foxes—spirit, human, or otherwise.

Nobody mentioned the floating person following her. Evidently, they couldn't see him.

That was a disappointment. She could still be going insane.

* * *

"So, JoAnn, to start and finish our conversation from yesterday. . . ?"

"Hm?" JoAnn looked up with her mouth full and bulging. Rachel and Robin were laughing at something Lindsay had said.

"The phone call you got mad about?"

"What phone call?"

"Wow, you must have been really tired."

"If it was too damned early, then yes."

Kurama watched from beside Shawna, sitting in the space left to show the separation of groups. He'd chosen to keep quiet around others, in case Shawna forgot others couldn't see or hear him and responded.

"Well, I, um, have something to say." Shawna looked around the lunchroom. Seeing all others occupied, she leaned in close. "You know that poster Rachel bought me?"

"Yeah?" JoAnn swallowed the food in her mouth and took another bite. Kurama raised an eyebrow at something behind her, but she ignored it.

"It—"

There was a cold spot on her head, making her gasp and stiffen. A cold trickle made its way from the top of her head to her nose, and Shawna squinted to keep the liquid out of her eyes. JoAnn passed her a napkin and glared at the boy behind her. "Watch where the fuck you're going!"

"Hey! I'snot like I did it on purpose, or nothing!" The guy scowled, then looked at Shawna. "I'm sorry, you alright?"

"Fine," she said stiffly. She stood up, and Rachel, Robin, and Lindsay went quiet.

Rachel, being the tactful person she was, said, "What happened to _you_?"

"That idiot dumped stuff on my head." Shawna ignored the soft snickering from the redhead behind her and continued on the way to the bathroom. Her friends and her ghost followed. The guy yelled out a last apology, and all five threw him their best venomous glares. (Some worked, some didn't.)

When she got to the bathroom she realized it was chocolate milk, splattered on the top and back of her jacket along with her hair. She took the jacket off to run under the water (although the sink was clogged with hair and paper, she managed it without touching anything after years of practice) and was relieved to see that her shirt was fine. No stripping in a stall for her, no sir.

"What are you going to do about your hair?" asked Kurama from beside her, carefully not looking at any of the mess by keeping his eyes closed.

"Hey, Shawna, what'cha going to do about your hair?" Robin and the others entered, Rachel carrying her backpack.

"I'll wait until gym."

"But that's last hour. You still have science, right?"

"I'll have to make due." She glared out of the corner of her eye at Kurama, who had made her come to school despite her wishes. He acted innocent, the bastard. "I'm not putting my head in a sink, and they won't allow us in."

"You could use a water bottle," said Lindsay.

"Or a hose," added Rachel.

Wondering were they'd get a hose, and deciding she didn't want to die of dehydration or drink tap water, Shawna said, "No."

And that was that.

* * *

"This is so embarrassing," she murmured, walking briskly in a towel to the school's pool, passing the boys on track. "And _you_ aren't _helping_."

"Well I'm sorry if my masculinity upsets you," Kurama said somewhat sarcastically (it was hard to tell), "but I am as helpless to change that as you are." That wasn't completely true, but it wasn't like he could take a sex-changing potion as he was now, and he didn't want a repeat of _that_ particular adventure again _ever_.

Shawna couldn't respond to that because they were near the girls now, standing outside the blue gate around the pool. She saw Rachel, Robin, and JoAnn standing off to the side with Hannah and Kaleen, talking about something that looked vaguely interesting. She walked over, everyone said hi to each other, and then the teacher came.

They sat down on the bleachers as the teacher explained and demonstrated the breast stroke on dry land, and asked for a volunteer. One girl volunteered, got in the water, demonstrated, and got back out. (Very exciting stuff, aye?) They got into seven separate lines at one end of the pool to swim laps to the other side and then walk back around.

Once the two girls ahead of her were gone and she'd slipped into the water, Kurama knelt down by her. "Maybe you should not try to tell anyone else."

Shawna shot him a mild glare, not trusting anything worse for fear of others noticing. She checked to make sure no one was paying attention or had come and added to the three-person line she was a part of. "Why not?"

"Just a feeling. And every time you try something happens to stop it."

"Coincidence."

"Maybe not."

"What do—"

"You had better start now. The teacher already blew the whistle."

Shawna blew out a gust of air, and the teacher was looking over at her from the lifeguard's chair, so she swam across the pool, if not gracefully or very fast, at least with rhythm and in a straight line.

Once on the other side she was separated at least halfway between her group and the one behind her and scurried quickly to her place in line. "What do _you_ know about it?" she hissed while hurrying past the diving board.

"I may not be Kuwabara, but something feels off when you try to say something about me to someone else."

"I think you're overreacting." She got in line and almost jumped on top of the next girl in line because she wasn't paying attention. She said, "Sorry," at the moment when the teacher blew the whistle. Shawna jumped in after the girl was a suitable distance away.

"I don't," Kurama said grimly. "And every time you try something worse might happen."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the first time your friend got mad at you, and the second time someone dumped chocolate milk on your head."

"I don't think you can judge based on two times. Three? Maybe. But not _two_."

The whistle blew, and Shawna went underwater unnecessarily so that she wouldn't have to listen anymore.

Kurama trailed behind, frowning.


	8. A Black Eye

"Do you think Nudgy would count?" Shawna muttered form the other side of the curtain.

"He already knows, so probably not," Kurama replied.

She tugged her shirt past her bellybutton. "So, I'd have to tell one of my friends?" She pushed the curtain aside and stepped out of the shower stall carefully, mindful of her sandals catching on a ledge and the wet spots.

"Most likely just someone who doesn't know." Shawna opened her mouth to reply. "Don't talk to me," he reminded her. She scowled at the air in front of her and stomped down on the ground once to show her disagreement with his existence.

She opened her locker and shoved inside her sandals, taking out her sneakers and socks. She looked around for someone to tell, if just to prove Kurama wrong. Hannah wasn't talking to anyone, to busy frowning at a zit in a mirror placed at the end of the rows of lockers. "Hey, Hannah!"

Hannah turned. "Yeah?"

Shawna put on her left sock. "Well, you see, Rachel bought me a poster of Kurama."

". . . That's . . . fascinating? Why are you telling me this?"

"To prove a point, I wanted to tell you—" Shawna jumped up to put on her shoe (which she did everyday), banged her eye on an open locker door, and fell backwards. Two voices said, "Oomph."

Shawna gasped, her eyes screwed up in pain, clutching her right eye and gritting her teeth to keep from crying. Even so, a few tears escaped.

"OH MY GOD! Shawna, you okay?" Hannah kneeled down, even though Shawna obviously wasn't okay.

"Fa-iiiiine," she gritted out, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

"Kaleen?"

Kaleen, still beneath Shawna, and having fallen on her butt but not having hit anything else (very luckily, as a concrete seat was right behind her head), said, "I'm okay."

Rachel and Robin crouched down, too. Some girls gave them dirty looks for being in the way, but they glared back or ignored them.

"Maybe you should go see the nurse," Rachel suggested. "At least get some ice."

JoAnn came out of the showers then, toweling her wet hair dry and squelching with each step. She'd stayed too long in a stall and the showers had turned on while she was changing. She stopped in front of the group. "Shawna, you okay?"

Shawna shot a teary glare at her friend. "_Fine_." She got to her feet wobbly with the help of three pairs of hands. (Kaleen was rubbing her legs and stomach in an attempt to be rid of the pain and JoAnn would be more of a hindrance than a help, being behind Hannah.) "Just _peachy_. I'm going to the nurse before the bell rings." She grabbed her backpack and carried her other shoe and sock in her left hand as she scurried across the hot cement to the other side of the school. Her friends offered to come, but she waved them away, telling them they shouldn't miss their own busses and stuff.

Kurama drifted by her, making sure she wasn't going to fall (although she stumbled a few times), and not knowing what he was going to do if she did. "You have to agree now that telling others isn't the best idea."

"Shut it," she hissed in a dangerous voice. Kurama didn't know what she could do to him, but decided to be kind as she was obviously distraught.

She went to the nurse, explained the situation, carefully pulled on her other sock and shoe as she heard the bell ring, thanked the nurse for the ice, and walked leisurely out of school to head to her house a few blocks away.

"Hey, Shawna!" Shawna turned, and found Hannah and Rachel skidding on their bikes to stop before they hit her. "Are you really okay?" continued Hannah. "You gonna make it home alright?"

"I'll be fine," she assured them for the fourth time. "I'm not that far away."

"If you're sure," said Rachel, adjusting her helmet and squinting against the sun. She looked like she wanted to be in a freezer.

"Positive."

They said their goodbyes in doubtful voices and pedaled off into the north. Or, in a general northerly direction. Towards their houses, anyways.

The ghost and the girl were silent as they walked across the crosswalk, walking between a small opening in the wall just big enough for a stroller. Then Kurama, who glanced over at her face and decided that she probably wouldn't explode if he talked to her, asked, "May I see your eye?"

Shawna glared, removing the ice. Her eye was red and starting to puff-up. "How does it look," she said in a gravelly voice.

"It's puffy."

"Puffy?"

"And red."

"Won't it turn black?"

"Probably not until tomorrow."

"Oh. I thought it would happen faster than that."

"Well, it will be green, yellow, and purple until then."

"Great. . . ."

* * *

Shawna stared up at the ceiling. "Is it nice, living for so long?"

Kurama paused and glanced up from the book he was reading. "What do you mean?"

"Well, your demon form, or whatever. You've lived for over a thousand years, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it nice?"

"It was fun, until I was killed."

"Okay. . . ." She looked over at him through her one good eye. "Do you think I could live forever?"

He gave her a considering look. "Even if you could, you wouldn't want to."

"Well, I definitely don't want to _die_. Ninety years or so doesn't seem like enough, and that's only if I'm lucky." She removed the icepack. "As it is, I don't see that happening." She replaced the icepack.

"You're mentality wouldn't be able to take it," Kurama continued, regardless of her reasoning. "Humans are only given a certain time to live because any longer and you'd want to kill yourselves and/or each other. You do that anyways, but then it'd only be to a greater extent."

Shawna sighed. "That's not fair. People are different. Not everyone will be like that, ready to die."

"Not everyone's ready to die by the time they do die, but if it's after they turn ninety they're generally happier for it. They get to be young again and do practically whatever they want."

"Is there a point in there somewhere?"

Kurama sighed. "Just remember that the ending of life is not the end."

"Whatever."

* * *

AN: I won't be updating for a while. Going on vacation, and I want to finish chapter ten on this and figure out what I'm doing on my Dragon Knights thing. I have a general direction, but that may change. . . .


	9. Phone Call In The Night

"Your mother is coming," Kurama said from his place near the counter.

"Mm," replied Shawna, not really paying attention. She had ice on her eye and was eating the pizza she'd ordered while reading Jane Eyre for a school assignment.

There was a gasp from the doorway. "Dear, what happened to your eye?"

Shawna looked up from her book. A string of cheese trailing from the pizza slice to her mouth drooped and snapped to fall against the counter. "Wuh?" Shawna asked. She said, "Oh," a second later, as her thoughts caught up. "I hit it on a locker."

"How did that happen?" Her mother hovered a bit in the doorway, moving her hands as if she wanted to smooth her daughter's hair.

"I was putting on my shoes and fell." She took a bite of her pizza slice and went back to her reading.

"Oh. . . ." Her mother stood there awkwardly for a little while longer as her daughter ignored her before saying, "You're dad called."

"Yeah, I got the message." _The stupid man-whore. That was the lamest excuse yet._

". . . Alright then." Her mother left the room.

Kurama waited until the woman was a suitable distance away. "Maybe you should use cold meat instead."

Shawna sighed. "Do you really believe that old wives tail about the enzymes in meat?"

"It seems to work."

"That's because it's _cold_."

Kurama shrugged and dropped the subject.

Shawna narrowed her eyes in thought and twisted her mouth.

A few minutes later, she had some really old steak from the freezer on her eye, and Kurama was reading over her shoulder. (He had nothing better to do.)

* * *

Kurama opened his eyes once he was sure Shawna was asleep. He sat up in bed and looked around the darkened room, taking everything into account. Now that he knew she was a heavy sleeper, this should be easy.

He slid over to Shawna's side, crawling over her gently so as not to wake her up. Nudgy was on the other side, and he looked up, whined, moved out of the way with his tail between his legs.

Kurama put his feet down on the carpeted floor and turned around to pick Shawna up, placing a gentle hand over the ice. She frowned at the movement, grabbing his shirt, but she didn't wake up.

He crossed the room silently, sitting down in a cross-legged position so that he could free an arm to reach for the phone. He did so, and winced at the sound the buttons made as he dialed his home phone number.

"Your phone call cannot be completed as dialed," said a woman's voice on the other side of the phone. Kurama frowned and looked at the phone in his hand, thinking about it, and realized his mistake.

He walked downstairs to another phone (he'd seen at least three in the house so far, not counting the cellphones he knew they had), setting down Shawna and removing her fingers from his shirt in order to look through the nearby cabinets for a phone book. He found five, checked a few, and figured out how to call home.

He dialed the international code, the country code, and _then_ his home phone number.

The same woman's voice spoke, "The number you have dialed is not in service—"

He sighed and pulled the phone away from his ear. He put it back in its cradle and proceeded to get up, walking through the house and her room to lay Shawna gently down on the bed, disentangling her fingers from his shirt again.

Nudgy edged up to him. When Kurama looked down he whined and hesitantly licked his hand. Nudgy's tail wagged the tiniest bit and he rolled over onto his back. Kurama reached down to rub his belly. "Thank you," he murmured. He stood back up. Nudgy rolled over to look up imploringly, his tail moving faster. Kurama pet his ears, and with finality patted his head and turned.

Kurama crawled over Shawna again and settled down. Nudgy walked over to the end of the bed and curled up to sleep on the floor.

Kurama stayed in a half-awake state the rest of the night, readjusting the ice every time Shawna moved.

* * *

Shawna moaned into her pillow when her alarm went off. She raised her head and slapped the snooze button. She laid back down, wondering about the pressure on her eye.

"It's time to get up," said a soft voice to her right.

She hadn't expected to hear a voice. She jerked up and fell off the bed, pulling most of the sheets down with her. As she lay stunned on the floor, thinking about her near miss of the wall, she remembered why there was a voice there. And as Kurama peeked over the edge to reach down and help her up she was thinking _At least the mornings are getting easier. I don't freak out so much anymore._

Then she realized she couldn't see out of her right eye, and ran into the bathroom.

"Ho-holy. . . . Oh my. . . ." She gaped at her eye, large and puffy and extremely dark. She paused and thought about it. "What man would want me now?" she asked sarcastically, grinning at her reflection.

Kurama wondered if she'd snapped. "You should probably also turn off the snooze, unless you want your alarm to go off again in another eight minutes."

Shawna shot her eye to him and grunted. She stumbled back into her room and turned off her alarm totally, sighing and sinking down onto her mattress. "It's only 5:30," she said, looking out her window at the light skyline. "I could have had another half-hour of sleep."

"Then you should set your alarm later," Kurama said, pulling her up. She slumped down to the floor when he let go and curled up to go back to sleep. He frowned. It hadn't been this hard for her to wake up yesterday. She'd practically jumped out of bed. "Are you sick?" he asked, mildly concerned.

"No. . . ." Shawna sighed and sat up, realizing Kurama wouldn't let her get any more sleep. "I'm _tired_. I need more than five hours of sleep."

"Maybe you should go to be earlier," Kurama suggested.

"But then I wouldn't finish my homework."

"You could do your homework earlier."

"But it's so _boring_. Right after school I want to _relax_, not do homework."

Kurama raised his eyebrows in such a way that it suggested that this wasn't his problem.

Shawna rubbed the skin around her puffy eye to get at an itch. She pursed her lips. "Shut up."

Kurama knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

Kurama smiled in an amused and tolerating sort of way.

* * *

AN: I'm just assuming that's how the phone works, but I don't really know and I'm too tired to look it up. If you know it's wrong, I _really_ don't mind being corrected.

Wow. I got a job and started school again. I'm get headaches a lot, and the only reason this is up is because it was already written before summer ended. Thank you for waiting!

Next chapter's progress so far: One sentence. . . . It'll be a while.


	10. Email

Humans really were adaptable. It had been, what, two—three days since Kurama fell out of a poster on top of her? And Shawna felt . . . well, not great exactly, but not too much worse than usual. She'd been questioning her sanity quite a bit more than usual lately, but she was pretty sure that was normal.

And now that she thought about it, she should question her sanity again.

_Am I insane?_

* * *

It was hot that day.

Shawna had her black jacket around her waist when walking to school. Her bag had only one strap that was rested on her right shoulder, and the bag itself was on her left hip. Kurama wondered how that was comfortable.

"You know," Shawna said finally, getting uncomfortable with the silence. ". . ." Then she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Yes?" Kurama prompted.

"Never mind," murmured Shawna as she crossed the street, making sure there was no traffic as she wasn't at an intersection.

Kurama figured that she was probably sulking because he'd made her get up earlier than she was used to, thus she'd had time to kill. That meant she'd actually finished her homework at home, and not during the time between classes. This seemed new to her.

They entered the school and were greeted by a, "Hey Shawna!"

Shawna turned to look. "Hey, Rachel. Hey Hannah."

Rachel and Hannah walked quickly over, a smile on their faces. "Has JoAnn e-mailed you yet?" Rachel asked.

"About what?"

"We're having a slumber party at her house!" Rachel crowed, going over to a water fountain and splashing water up onto her face and neck, using the T-shirt she wasn't wearing yet to wipe off her face.

"No, I didn't go on the computer this morning."

"Why not?"

"Finishing homework."

Hannah looked at her, wide-eyed. "Are you done?" Shawna nodded. "Maybe I should do that." Rachel wandered off then while pulling on her T-shirt. She was probably hot from the bike ride. Hannah waved good-bye and left too after explaining that she, herself, wasn't invited to the party as she didn't really know JoAnn all that well.

* * *

A few hours later, at lunch, JoAnn asked her about the e-mail.

"I didn't go on the computer this morning."

"I sent it last night."

"Then I didn't get it."

Kurama was looking at the food with what might be considered vague longing to an outsider. He wanted to eat something.

"Oh. Well, it's on Friday. D'ya want to go?"

Shawna glanced at Kurama. Her friends thought she was just thinking if she had anything to do, when in reality an extremely good-looking, red-haired, Japanese man looked at her, raised his eyebrows, and said, "There shouldn't be a problem."

"Sure." Then she shrugged to show that it was no big deal.

"Just don't speak to me the whole night."

Shawna rolled her eyes. She didn't think that would be a problem, as she was still mad at him for not helping her on a test when he'd known all the answers. If he hadn't, he'd certainly seemed like he had. He kept giving her this _smile_ when she put down answers she wasn't sure about or knew was wrong. It wasn't a mean smile, per-say, or particularly smug. She just hadn't liked it. _I'm not listening. I'm not listening. Blah-dy-blah-dy—_

"What's with the eye-roll?"

"What?" Shawna looked in surprise at JoAnn, who looked confused. She might have been feeling some hurt, too, but JoAnn never really showed those types of emotions. Shawna had honestly forgot her friends were there. "Oh, I was just thinking of something."

"What?"

Shawna opened her mouth, paused, and looked at Rachel, who was watching her. She'd been about to say the Kurama poster, since that was the first thing she'd thought of and it was half-true, anyways. But then Rachel would be hurt. Was it worth it. . . ?

She looked at Rachel again, and decided _No. Not really._

"How my mom and dad are still keeping up their charade."

Shawna's friends nodded in understanding and murmured sympathetically, continuing to eat whatever was on their "plates." Kurama moved slightly to the left. He wasn't into the habit of shifting unnecessarily, but he wanted to see what the girl in front of him was concentrating on so fiercely.

Shawna noticed Robin jump, twitching her right arm slightly away from where Kurama was standing. "What is it?"

Robin shivered. "Someone just walked over my grave!"

Shawna stared for a moment in a kind-of fuzzy surprise before glaring at Kurama.

Kurama sighed and moved away from Robin, floating towards Shawna again. Shawna thought Kurama had done something, and he could see it in her eyes.

He wondered what she'd try to do to him before glancing down at Robin again to find her putting away her book, frowning.

When they got home, Shawna yelled at him and called him many things, some of them needing to be explained, which Shawna did with great joy.

Kurama had looked at her after her tirade. She was breathing heavily and grinning maliciously.

He used one word to describe her, and didn't bother to translate.

"**Sharakusai."**

_Cheeky._

He ignored her ranting as she stuffed stir-fry into her mouth for her snack/lupper.

* * *

_Lupper_: lunch and supper

AN: It's 1:30 in the morning. I'm a little blurry, so this chapter may be crack-tastic.


	11. Party

Kurama spent the whole week convincing Shawna that he wasn't doing anything to Robin. Shawna continuously blamed Kurama for Robin acting so paranoid and looking over her shoulder so often. Then, on Thursday, Kurama pointed out that Robin wasn't even looking vaguely in his direction during one of these actions, and so proved his innocence.

Not only did Kurama prove his innocence, but Shawna also became used to his presence. The morning bathroom routine was now not nearly so awkward, nor were any other bathroom-related incidences, and on Wednesday Shawna finally felt bad enough that she went to the library during lunch and checked out a book Kurama showed interest in. She set it on the corner of her desk in each classroom so that Kurama had something to do instead of listening to everything he already knew, turning the pages for him each time he tapped the book. The teachers could not prove she was not paying attention, although her English teacher still made her put the book away.

After school on Friday Shawna, Robin, and Rachel joined JoAnn on her bus ride home. They had permission slips from their parents prepared, just in case the bus driver refused to take them, but he didn't even give them a second glance. The spent the ride squished three to a seat (Robin had to sit with two others across the isle) and telling dirty jokes. Shawna grew to respect Kurama just a little bit more when, just as she was doomed with no more jokes to one-up her friends with, he sighed at her panicked deer-in-the-headlights-and-puppy-dog-eyes-rolled-i nto-one expression and told her the dirtiest joke she'd ever heard. She repeated it verbatim to her friends, and they were suitably entertained. They dubbed her Queen of Dirty Jokes and Shawna felt satisfied for the first time since a fox demon . . . spirit . . . whatever had become inconvertibly attached to her.

They reached JoAnn's house well before the other invitees and danced and sang not-bad-but-not-good-either to a playlist filled with various pop artists and some oldies, classical, and alternative slipped in just for fun. Shawna felt self-conscious of Kurama sitting beside her staring at the playing teenagers in amusement (Rachel liked going into handstands, and JoAnn did an excellent Robot) and spent most of her time on a chair drinking Coke and eating. She managed to eat a bag of popcorn, some chips and dip, and had just started to pick through the old Halloween candy when Hannah arrived.

Hannah seemed to mark the start of the welcoming process, as for the next ten minutes people kept showing up right after the other until everyone was present. JoAnn's parents set out more food for the hungry teenagers, told everyone that the fridge was completely off limits except for the drinks, and then left to go on a date to the movies.

After that the party went into full swing. Everyone had fun playing games (truth or dare was a favorite, along with, surprisingly, Twister and Jenga), talking, eating, and dancing (for those who weren't too self conscious). As people became less enthusiastic JoAnn said, "Let's go swimming!" Everyone agreed and went outside to walk around the corner where the outside pool for all the residents in the neighborhood resided. They all (except Shawna) stripped down to their underwear and jumped in at the same time. Shawna stood off to the side, too embarrassed to strip down with a demon (sorry—_fox spirit_) standing right beside her.

"Having fun?" she muttered to him, not worried about anyone paying any attention to her. They were all too busy shouting out suggestions on what game they should play.

"Yes, actually." She stared at him out of the corner of her eye and noticed his slight smile. "I've never been to a party comprised of only young teenagers. It's strangely innocent." And this said as one of the guys stole a girl's bra. She shrieked and covered herself, and her friends laughingly attempted to get her top back for her, which led to one of them (somehow) stealing the boy's swim trunks in retaliation.

Shawna turned away from Kurama and wondered what kinds of parties he'd been to in his many years of living.

After a rousing game of Marco Polo everyone put their clothes back on and headed back to JoAnn's house. JoAnn's parents had just returned and bid everyone goodnight before going upstairs to sleep. JoAnn started up the music again in case people wanted to dance some more, but by that time the energy was winding down and people started leaving.

In less than half an hour only the girls who were spending the night were still there and awake. That's when the alcoholic beverages were brought out. JoAnn and Shawna, along with Lindsay, Robin, and Rachel, all took one drink of a margarita mix from shot glasses before JoAnn refilled everyone's glass and they began to play Never Have I Ever.

"Alright," JoAnn started. "Never have I ever kissed a boy."

Every other person in the room took a drink like it was a shot of vodka and made disgusted faces. JoAnn smirked at them.

Shawna said, "Never have I ever been able to do the splits," causing JoAnn and Rachel to drink.

Robin bit her lip. "Um, okay, never have I ever . . . oh, I don't know." She looked around. "A little help here, guys?"

"The third person and we're already running out of ideas?" Lindsay snorted with a smile.

"What about rock climbing?" asked JoAnn. "Have you ever been rock climbing?"

"Yes. . . . But never have I ever climbed a mountain."

Shawna, JoAnn, and Rachel drank to that one.

Rachel started complaining. "C'mon, guys. Stop choosing stuff that I've done!"

At this point Kurama hovered in closer to Shawna and said quietly, "I thought that the legal drinking age in America was 21?"

She glared at him and his raised eyebrows and curious smile, completely missing what Lindsay had said. She turned away from the stupid fox and his curiosity and asked, "Sorry, what did you say?" even as JoAnn, Robin, and Rachel drank (Rachel cursing as she did so.)

"Never have I ever had a sibling," Lindsay dutifully repeated. Shawna had to drink for that one, as she had a twenty-two-year-old sister in college in Chicago.

Then it was Rachel's turn. "Never have I ever worn ankle socks," she said with a smile, and crowed in triumph as everyone else drank.

They played 12 more rounds, getting through the tipsy stage. JoAnn took out some whiskey from the fridge before coming back to join the girls as they tried to get ready for bed. They were all giggling and crawling around as they tried to unroll their sleeping bags and brush their teeth. They were talking about things of no consequence when the topic of guys came up.

"So . . . Jeremy?"

"Too much acne," Rachel pointed out with a yawn as she snuggled up to her sleeping bag without getting inside of it. "Although he's a redhead."

"Red hair is _so_ amazing," Lindsay agreed. "My cousin has red hair, too. He's pretty hot."

"Hey!" Robin yelled, scandalized. "He's your _cousin_!"

"But he's _hot_! He works on a _farm._"

"On a farm?" Robin considered as she took another sip of soda now that the margaritas were gone. "He does sound hot. . . ." JoAnn handed her a cup of whiskey and she accepted it, draining the last of her coke and putting the can on a nearby counter.

"What about Darren?" asked Shawna.

"Oh God!" Robin started coughing.

Shawna frowned and defended, "He's not _that_ ugly."

"What _is_ this?" Robin asked, waving around her drink.

JoAnn said, "Whiskey."

"Oh God. . . ." She coughed some more before taking another drink. Rachel giggled some more and took a drink from her own glass of whiskey.

"Whiskey, huh?" Lindsay took her own swallow and almost spit it out. She managed to keep it down and immediately coughed once she could breathe again without causing a stain on the carpet. "Dude. . . ."

And so the whiskey came and passed. Shawna tried not to drink much, since she knew there was someone watching them with a certain amount of amusement (every time Shawna glanced at a drink but didn't partake, Kurama gave her this knowing look that made her want to hit him), but gave in when JoAnn kept telling her to "chug it." Rachel was no longer sleepy and kept cursing every other word, especially since her torso was stuck in her sleeping bag and she complained that she couldn't get out. Robin kept trying to help by poking her head and asking, "Are you free now?" Lindsay kept giggling at the oddest things, but seemed to find words with an X in them extremely hilarious.

As the whiskey dwindled, the party-goers talked about everything from periods ("It hurts so much! And it's so gross!") to books ("Have you guys read The Only Alien on the Planet? No, really, you oughta give it a try—") to shoes ("And I found this really great pair of Ugg boots for only thirty dollars!") to nothing in particular as they continued drinking ("And then I was . . . I was . . . what was I saying?").

Kurama looked at Shawna with a strange expression on his face and asked, "Is this really what girls talk about at sleepovers?"

Shawna leaned over to swipe at him, forgetting that not only could she not touch him and even if she could he wouldn't just _allow_ her to hit him, but that the other couldn't even see him. "Shut up!" she half yelled, making everyone else stop what they were doing to look at her. "You're just a stupid boy!"

"Shawna," asked JoAnn, "who 're you talkin' to?"

"Kurama," Shawna said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

Rachel said, "Wow, you're _really_ drunk." Then she giggled and fell over.

Shawna had to defend herself at that, so she turned herself fully to face her friends and stopped herself from face-planting on the carpet. "No, see, that poster you guys got me was actually Kurama!"

Kurama frowned, and wondered why his spiritual senses were acting like danger was approaching.

"We know," said Lindsey dully, looking at her empty glass with a frown.

"No, like, the spirit of Kurama totally came out! And fell on me!"

Kurama tried to get Shawna's attention as the feeling of danger grew stronger. "Shawna—"

"And now he follows me around all the time for no good reason!"

Kurama heard a great _**CRACK**_, and his hair stood on end as he tried to discover the source of the sound.

And the rest of the girls laughed at Shawna, and jokingly agreed. "Sure. Sure."

Shawna scrunched up her face and growled playfully, jumping and tackling Robin's leg in a great show of strength (her body didn't seem to be working right—but she didn't feel that drunk, really, she couldn't be that drunk) before climbing up to her stomach and lifting her shirt to blow raspberries.

Robin laughed and tried to push her away. "Oh, God, Shawna, stop!"

The others were of no help, only laughing harder.

And Kurama's spirits fell as he saw thin threads of dark energy loop themselves from Shawna form into the other girls in the room before fading out of sight.

* * *

AN: Underage drinking happens, and it's important to the story, so I added it. This does not mean I support it.


End file.
